A return to the best game in the series. Thrilling and fun, here, have a stupidly long after action report.

Recently got back into civving, and finished a fine game of Civ IV. It's been a few years since I played it; this game just reminded me how much deeper this game is than Civ V or Civ VI. Best in the series by far. Here's the AAR of my playthrough:

Fractal map, random leader, standard size, normal speed, no random events, Monarch difficulty. I draw Washington of America. Uh, not the strongest possibility in Civ 4. Charismatic is nice for happiness, and of course it's a good war trait. Unique building and unit are far too late in the game to matter. Very little advantage to this leader.

I scouted around my starting position. It quickly became apparent that I was on an island near the top of the map, and my only neighbor was Augustus Caesar of Rome, to the east of me. I was semi-isolated. By expanding towards Octavian I was able to block off my half of the island and grab my fair share easy, though it wasn't the best quality land. The best part was a lot of river tiles. Washington had grassland cow and copper on a nice winding river and lots of forests: not bad. There was a nice coastal riverside crab/clam spot to the west which eventually became my Moai city. To the south there was a riverside spot with three flood plains, dry rice, and a couple of desert hills (these were mined and Gems popped here late in the game, so OK.) The north was tundra and ice. To the east there was a lot of brown land, some desert, little food, and hills.

I also had Marble near my capital. So obvious play is to chop my forests and Oracle Code of Laws (1600 BC). CoL did two important things:

1. It gave me a religion and a missionary to spread the religion to Rome. Getting Augustus to Pleased means I don't have to worry about him plotting while I'm still unprepared; with Praetorians that can be awkward. It WOULD happen eventually at Cautious, but there's no chance at Pleased.

2. It gives me the ability to build courthouses and run spy specialists. Since we're semi-isolated, Augustus was unlikely to trade any techs with me. I'd want to be able to steal his technology.

Rome did build the Great Wall (had Stone and Industrious, but alas, did not also build the 'Mids) and got two early Great Spies. So the espionage game was a challenge, right? No -- he built Scotland Yard with the first one in a city generating 0 EP/turn (deduced because his EP rate per turn did not go up!), and used the second one for a Golden Age. (A GA is fine, but building the Yard in a city with no espionage? The AI is bad at this game.) As a result I always had a big espionage lead. Augustus favored military tech heavily (he didn't have Alphabet even at 1000 AD!) so I researched the builder techs. I nabbed Construction, HBR, Feudalism, Engineering, and a couple minor backfill techs from him -- just a huge amount of beakers; even better than trading for them. I didn't have to advance Caesar at all; I would occasionally sell him a tech when he had gold and I could see he was one turn away from getting it himself. Getting research visibility on your opponents is nice. Almost all of my EPs were from courthouses, a few Spy specialists, and a settled Great Spy -- I had to run the EP slider at 20% or so for three or four turns to get Engineering, but that was it.

Another thing I did was research Metal Casting early (it's on the Optics line, and Forges are awesome buildings -- hammers plus potential happy faces, what not to like?) Then I built the Colossus in my Moai city with the Copper bonus. It was cheap, and being able to run 2F / 3C coast tiles meant I could slap down a couple of coastal cities in the tundra, claim several Fur resources and an extra source of Marble, and still run a profit almost immediately despite the weak land. I squeezed in other coastal cities wherever they could fit. Even these weak cities were worth it: they could pay for themselves with Colossus coast (no special worker setup required, just a Lighthouse). These cities could also build Courthouses via the whip and run a specialist or two to contribute to the spy game. My Moai city was super indeed (it eventually got Heroic Epic as well.) There is a slight anti-synergy when semi-isolated, as I'm going to want Astronomy for trade or conquest, but even when that's a priority, there's a lot of time between Colossus and Astro. By the time the Colossus was obsoleted irrigation would have spread everywhere, I'd have usable workshops, and infrastructure was built, so these weaker cities will still be worth having. Having a few extra draft spots (especially smaller ones starting with a sky-high happy cap and smaller food box) is a big benefit too... don't neglect to squeeze in crappy cities between your good ones when you can get away with it, is what I'm saying.

The other wonder I grabbed was the Mausoleum (yay marble). My first Great Scientist was an academy; my second bulbed Philosophy (and founded the religion, which gave me a second monastery in my capital but not much else). I managed to snag the Music great artist as well, and use him for my first long GA and civic swap into Bureaucracy/Pacifism. Most other Great People were settled in my capital -- I had at least two Prophets, another Scientist, and a Spy. Two other great people (Economics merchant and another spy, I believe) were used for another Golden Age.

I researched Optics, headed toward Education, and sent out Caravels to contact the other civs and win circumnavigation. Turns out that the five other civs were on a large continent. It was a big lovefest: four of them were Hindu and they had a common enemy, Charlemagne, the founder of Buddhism. Charlie was land-screwed, starting at the end of a long thin peninsula and blocked off early, with only three cities. All the others had 8-10 cities a piece. The Hindus -- William of Orange, Kublai, Giggles, Ramses -- shared a lot of favorite civics and of course were all trading among themselves. They were within two or three techs of each other. Ramses was slamming out wonders and clearly going culture, the others appeared to be focusing on research.

The only tech they had on me, at contact, was Theology. None had Philosophy or Education, both of which I possessed. The Liberalism race was a lock. I probably should have tried coming back to Civ IV at Emperor.

I spread out my espionage spending -- I needed no more on Augustus, but I wanted to have enough on all the Hindu civs that I would have visibility of their research. This would assure that I could tech around Liberalism for a while, and even be able to trade Philosophy and Education, with no fear of losing the Lib race. I can also sell techs when they come within a turn, to keep my science slider high. Thanks to my earlier preparations I had enough passive EP generation that, with 0% slider spending, I could outpace all of the civs in the Hindu block on EP. Even when William decided to spend all his espionage points on me, I could beat his rate and all the others with appropriate weight adjustments. Espionage is stronger than I remember in BTS.

At this point still I had a nice period where I knew these civs but they didn't know Augustus. I could conquer him with no fear of diplo penalties. I could even drag a little on the Lib race and still get something juicy. I was first to Nationalism, and Taj Mahal golden age plus drafting got me a massive army (macemen then muskets then rifles and trebuchets.) The Taj golden age turned into a double golden age with two great people, for 24 turns of crazy Mausoleum-fueled research and production and mayhem. Augustus built the Great Wall, Hanging Gardens, and Chichen Itza in Rome. The Pizza is annoying, but maces and trebs kill longbows and praets just fine, and rifles give no quarter whatsoever. I slammed his main offensive stack on open ground a couple turns after declaring, then started sweeping his cities. I could have easily gotten cuirassiers instead of going for the draft, had I any horses in my land.

I stomped Augustus quickly, and finally he was left with two weak cities locked in tundra hell. These I could see had no infrastructure, and no resources that I wanted. I also wanted to move on to my next target before the tech pace advanced too much further (I went from macemen to rifles during the war in maybe fifteen turns!) Taking Rome as a vassal got me +1 happy face, but I would take a -1 diplo hit with the other civs. I was at high Pleased or Friendly at this point, I could live with it. I could also sell Augustus tech for gold now and then. I'm a lover, not a fighter. Augustus became my vassal and was almost immediately Pleased with me again. Heh.

During this time I researched Banking, Gunpowder, Economics (pleasantly surprised to win the Merchant here), Steam Power (levees were a big draw), and Liberalism within 1 turn of finishing. I traded for Printing Press from Ramses, who with his focus on wonders was slightly behind the others in the powerful Hindu bloc in tech. Finally, William and Kublai were both 2 turns away from Liberalism; I made a rather expensive trade (Economics/Gunpowder plus some gold, I believe, though neither were monopolies) to get Replaceable Parts from Ramses (nice of him to go down that line), and next turn I finished Lib and grabbed Rifling as the free tech, about 1400 AD but still fast enough to use in the Roman war. I went from Pacifism into Free Religion at Liberalism (no anarchy, still in the double Golden Age); it's William's fav civic, I no longer had the diplo penalty for running Confucianism, and I got the beaker bonus (big stuff for a space game.) I took Free Market then as well, though State Property was not far away.

As the war with Rome finished, I built Galleons. My highest-promoted trebs became cannons. My next target after Rome, obviously, was Holy Rome -- war on the Burger King came with no downside; nobody liked him and I'd shortly be in State Property so the maintenance of his distant cities was a trivial factor. He was estranged and did not have gunpowder, much less rifles. It was a short war with only one or two unit losses, and Charlemagne was eliminated. His three cities were all food-rich and in decent locations. The extra clam resources at Aachen were actually worth quite a bit in trade as well. Surprised nobody bothered to put him out of his misery earlier, but no complaints.

About this time, William was the first to Assembly Line -- and I paid close attention. Once the AI starts building factories, their tech and production rate tends to skyrocket. After this, he beelined down toward Superconductors as well. Whoa there, William! That was when it started to look like an actual space race. Everybody on that continent was now close to Rifles, so trading away Liberalism, Rifling, and brokered techs I was able to gather Scientific Method, Astronomy, Steel and Assembly Line and over two thousand gold for deficit research for myself. Not too shabby.

Then there was a few hundred years of some heavy teching. I lost the Great Spy at Communism to Ramses, but more importantly I won the Great Scientist at Physics. I was also first to Biology, Electricity, Radio, Ecology, and Industrialism. I was beaten to Artillery, Railroad, Rocketry, Medicine, Refrigeration, Flight, Superconductors, Genetics (!!!), and Satellites, besides the usual garbage stuff like Fascism and Mass Media. William was briefly the "most advanced" civ in the game during this period (the AI plays William competently when it comes to research and trade), though in terms of beakers along the spaceship line I was still ahead. After absorbing my conquests and industrializing I closed in on 2000 beakers/turn at 100%, and they weren't touching that.

I decided to grab Computers and build the Internet, if for no other reason than denial. I knew I would at least get Rocketry, and I was hoping to get Satellites and maybe another space tech as well. As a result, my research path was deep into the tree, Industrialism/Plastics/Computers/Fiber Optics/Fusion, going after the most expensive space techs first. I would be late to build Apollo Project, but I had a massive amount of hammers and I'd be able to build all the late and expensive parts far earlier than anyone else, and that usually means a win. It's backwards, I admit, and probably was far from optimal -- I suppose I would have had to get both Satellites and Composites or Genetics as well as Rocketry to make that strictly better. But since I was going Internet, I traded fairly freely with the non-William civs; I wanted them to catch up and trade or research new stuff so I can get those other space techs. I backfilled Communism via trade and revolted into State Property (this was one turn of anarchy IIRC). I would obtain Artillery, Railroad, and Medicine via trade as well.

Rome got the Ironworks -- Caesar's old capital was a production beast with levee-boosted river tiles and well-fed mines (one with Coal, one with Iron). I built Broadway and the Cristo Redentor; the Hit Musicals resources were a boon in trading for much needed health resources and gold per turn; besides my Fur, which obsoletes, I had a surprising lack of monopoly resources (the Hits wonders in general are underrated because of situations like that.) The Cristo was for diplo and convenience purposes -- every civics demand results in a one-turn switch.

Aachen with its triple clams was a good city, too; Charlie built the Buddhist shrine, and while it was a shunned religion on the continent it had widely spread (Egypt had it everywhere for culture, for instance). A Commmunist Wall Street, however that works, made it a big contributor; it had enough hammers to build a couple of spaceship parts as well.

There was a bit of a scare, when I was still researching Plastics, William went into WHEOOHRN mode. Using my Airships I could see he was stacking on an ocean city near Ramses' border, but no way Egypt was the target (they were Friendly). Infantry, cavalry, even SAM infantry. He was massing Galleons as well. It could only have been me or Augustus. Pleased with me (or "Friendly" but pleased via averaging), Pleased with Augustus, but William's a squirrel, as you know. I had some Destroyers waiting near the Dutch bay, and I started pumping Infantry from my Heroic Epic city, and my airships scouted the area every turn -- if those boats sailed towards me a pre-emptive strike would take out his entire force before they landed. Galleons, seriously?

Thanks to these airships, incidentally, I could also see that William was running a pirate navy. Yarrr! Privateers don't like Destroyers very much.

The whole thing resolved itself when William suddenly dropped his war plans. I don't know if this was due to the spike in my power, or just a random "are you sure you want to declare at happy?" roll.

I captured a barb city (garrisoned with Rifles!) on a tiny island far in the south. There's a spot for another city on the same island with Sheep, which I needed, so I Cristo Redentor-swapped into Universal Suffrage for one turn and rush bought a Settler there. I beat Gilgamesh to that spot by one turn (he landed a settling party the turn my settler got into position!) Sorry Giggles, you must look elsewhere for ovine friends. Yay Cristo Redentor!

About 1830, I won the Secretary-Generalship of the UN. I realized that, if I adopted Bureaucracy (instead of Free Speech) I got Kublai to Friendly. I was already forcing Caesar into Bureaucracy/Free Religion: since Giggles and Kublai love Bureaucracy, and William loves Free Religion, and he was no longer a heathen, this improved Caesar's relations with the other continent so much that, even with diplo averaging, by running Bureaucracy myself I could win a UN victory. I could do this easily forty or fifty turns faster than a space win and get a slightly higher score, so I decided to try that and take the win, and play on to see how hard I beat the Netherlands in the space race. So victory came via diplomacy cheese in AD 1836. But the game went on!

The Internet gave me a total three techs: Rocketry, Mass Media, and Robotics (surprising!) "Free" Robotics is maybe the only situation in which the BTS Space Elevator is worth a damn, but I didn't bother with it (I knew the Dutch had to be nearly done with it, and sure enough, it went a couple turns later.) The low return from the Internet was because Ramses ramped up his culture slider, and Kublai and Giggles simply avoided space techs. Only William and Ramses seemed to want to win the game. Even if I had a free space elevator, too, it would have been faster to self-tech the Rocketry line.

I had a monopoly on Plastics for a long time, which meant I was first to Composites (despite Satellites being researched ages ago). This also meant the space race wasn't really all that close. When I completed my spaceship, William was still missing the Life Support, the Engine, and all the Casings (and he did not yet have Fusion or Composites), despite his huge head start on the Apollo Program, Thrusters, Docking Bay, and Cockpit. I would have beaten him to space by 30 or more turns. Ramses was the third place finisher, 60-70 turns from a culture victory; Thebes was legendary but the other two lagged too far behind. Don't get discouraged when you see early Apollo Programs, the AI often takes meandering paths through the tree and certainly loves to waste time with stuff like space elevators!

I built Malls everywhere for flavor and launched into space, landing in 1912.